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22 February 2019

Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 sources worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.

The ADM Poll Of Polls 2011

The last batch of votes are in, from Tiny Mix Tapes, Under The
Radar, Pretty Much Amazing, Bowlegs, The Guardian and God Is In The
TV, so it's time to run through the AnyDecentMusic definitive
summary of the Best Albums Of 2011 lists.

We've compiled the rankings from 30 magazines, newspapers and
websites from our sources to provide a comprehensive reflection of
the critical favourites of the year. It's the ultimate "Best of the
Best Albums of 2011" chart.

So here's the rundown of the top 50 albums of the year as seen
by music reviewers in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and Ireland.
And below we give our appraisal of what it all means.

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471 PJ Harvey Let England Shake

375 Bon Iver Bon Iver

247St Vincent Strange
Mercy

252 Tune-Yards WhoKill

213 The Horrors Skying

194 Wild Beasts Smother

189 Fleet Foxes Helplessness
Blues

178 James Blake James Blake

173 Metronomy The English Riviera

156 The Weeknd House Of Balloons

148 M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

142 The Antlers Burst Apart

128 Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost

126 Radiohead The King Of Limbs

115 Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo

103 Shabazz Palaces Black Up

97 Fucked Up David Comes To Life

95 Tom Waits Bad As Me

94 Adele 21

90 Destroyer Kaputt

90 Katy B On A Mission

80 SBTRKT SBTRKT

76 Real Estate Days

73 Yuck Yuck

72 Jay-Z & Kanye West Watch The
Throne

72 EMA Past Life Martyred Saints

67 White Denim D

64 Drake Take Care

63 Gang Gang Dance Eye Contact

57 The War On Drugs Slave Ambient

56 Laura MarlingA Creature I Don't
Know

55 Tim Hecker Ravendeath 1972

52 Battles Gloss Drop

51 Arctic Monkeys Suck It And See

50 Lykke Li Wonded Rhymes

49 Anna CalviAnna
Calv4

49 King Creosote & John Hopkins Diamond
Mine

49 Wilco The Whole Love

46 Wild Flag Wild Flag

44 The Decemberists The King Is Dead

43 Josh T Pearson Last Of The Country
Gentlemen

41 My Morning Jacket Circuital

40 Kate Bush 50 Words For Snow

40 Lady Gaga Born This Way

40 TV On The Radio Nine Types Of Light

39 Beyonce 4

39 Florence And The Machine Ceremonials

38 Wu Lyf Go Tell Fire To The Mountain

38 Wye Oak Civilian

37 Oneohtrix Point Never Replica

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Declared: Uncut, Mojo, Q, The Fly, BBC, Clash, AV
Club, Faster Louder, The Skinny, The Quietus, Rolling Stone, Paste,
NME, music OMH, Pop Matters, Spin, Prefix, This Is Fake DIY,
Pitchfork, No Ripcord, One Thirty BPM, Consequence Of Sound, Tiny
Mix Tapes, Under The Radar, Pretty Much Amazing, The Guardian,
Bowlegs, God Is In The TV,State, AU
Magazine, entertainment.ie, The Line Of Best
Fit

* How the chart is calculated: We award a corresponding
number of points (20 for No.1, 19 for No.2 etc) to the top 20
albums from each source.

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So what conclusions can we draw about the way the critical mood
has swung this year? What seems clear is that alternative
rules the roost. A good seven from the top ten would fall into that
loose category, be it alt.rock. alt.folk or alt.pop, with only The
Horrors and Fleet Foxes as representatives of what could be termed
mainstream / indie music.

This compares markedly with last year, when Arcade Fire, The
National, Kanye West et al held sway.
At the top of the chart, we would have been happy to place large
amounts of ADM cash sometime back in June on the leading places
being claimed by perennial critics' darling PJ Harvey alongside Bon
Iver, a more latterday critical favourite.

Despite the strong showing for The Horrors, it has been an
otherwise meagre year for bands who make a lot of noise with
guitars. And reviewers seem even less drawn to electronica in any
form, with M83 the sole representative of the laptop / keyboard
manipulating classes figuring in the top 20.

After a strong showing last year with Kanye West, Big Boi and
Janelle Monae all figuring in the top 10, hip-hop and R&B are
also seriously under-represented - although The Weeknd would appear
to have a golden future ahead of them given the acclaim heaped on
House of Balloons which, as a giveaway mixtape, it could be argued
is not actually an "album" at all.

In the dance world, all the talk has once again been about
dubstep and its myriad underground bass music offshoots, while the
most overground of dubstep's practitioners, James Blake and
Katy B, are the ones who have taken the plaudits.

The two most surprising omissions from the higher echelons of
the chart come from the blues / roots end of the music spectrum: Ry
Cooder's Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down and Gillian Welch's The
Harrow And the Harvest, both of which feature not far behind PJ
Harvey in our all-time chart while barely mustering a handful of
nominations.

So in the eyes of the scribbling classes, 2011 has been the year
of the quirky, the off-beat, the unconventional, the experimental,
as personified by the likes of St Vincent, Tune-Yards, Wild Beasts
and their ilk.